East of Eden Writing

Next Steps and Draft

So, here we go. I will be using my annotated bibliography and some of the other sources that I've looked at, even just as references to keep me on-track. I have an idea of what paragraphs I want to write and a little bit of what I want to say. My goal: get my preliminary thoughts on paper. It will be a more skeletal draft than I'm used to writing, but it's a start.

Update
So I ended up with less sources and more thoughts, which I thought was fine for a super messy, preliminary write-up. I think I did get down my most basic outline, which was the goal. Again, sorry that it's so choppy:

            The concept of “timshel” is very valid and well-supported in this epic novel. It is the character of Lee, the Chinese immigrant who raises Adam’s twin boys Aron and Caleb, who goes by “Cal”. During his years of research on the Bible, Lee discovers that in the original Hebrew, the word given with God’s commands is “timshel,” meaning “thou mayest.” Lee then states that “[this] might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man” to choose his own actions rather than being forced to do anything. (301) This is an empowering idea, as this allows all people to act freely, but it is also a responsibility and accountability for one’s own actions. No one is forced to do anything, so they must live with the consequences of whatever they choose to do. This is shown very poignantly in the final meeting of Cathy, then Kate, and her husband Adam. When Adam finds her in her prostitution house, Kate believes that, just as before, she can use manipulation to gain power of her former husband. But Adam chose to confront her and his feelings of love for her, and in doing so, he saw her as she truly was. He could not be fooled anymore and he was free to act. He even “laughed because he knew that [she didn’t matter]” to him anymore. (323) Parallel to his choices are Kate’s very purposeful actions. She chose again and again to lash out and hurt Adam as much as she could with her blackmail, her lies and affair, and her sexuality. But Adam realizes and declares to her that she “hate[s] the good in [others] that [she] can’t get at,” which is “something [that she] can’t understand.” (321) Yet even though she, as a sociopath, cannot understand goodness the way that others can, she still puts for real effort to ruin others. That is not just her nature—it is her conscious decision. She becomes bound by her horrible, selfish choices when she loses power over Adam and therefore can no longer make choices for them both in the situation.

            Yet there is a paradox, for even though every person has the ability to choose for themselves, they each have a unique drive that causes them to choose the things that they do. There is something that motivates each person that causes them to act differently from others, and this thing can be defining. When Adam is forced to think again about Cathy, he must choose how to respond. Lee tells him that even though he is facing a choice, “[his] course is drawn. What [he] will do is written—written in every breath [he’s] ever taken” (376). Human thought and habits are both consistent and persistent. It is difficult to break free of our usual thoughts processes and perceptions.

            But it is a person’s right to choose that course, whatever their reasoning, that Steinbeck so highly praises. He declares that he would “fight for” every person’s right to make their own decisions because “the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.”  This is the thing that, above anything else, Steinbeck believes and wants others to know—that every person can and should make their own choices and should also rejoice in the fact that they can. He seems to find strength in the idea that we make our choices free of outside influences, even our nurture, as this takes away the most precious “freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected.” In this way we come to rely more on ourselves and our personal progress as we journey through life rather than be shaped by the circumstances and factors outside of our control. For Steinbeck, as shown in this epic novel, this is the crowning glory of mankind—to be one’s own person and make their own decisions for themselves.

Well-Written but Under-Analyzed

As the title of the post suggests, Jonah Byers' strengths and weaknesses in academic writing are quite oxymoronic in their nature. You see, much of the critiques he received in the rough draft of his senior year literary criticism paper on Hamlet was that his analyzation was well-written, but the analyzation itself was lacking in depth and perhaps he should go back and read the text some more in the mindset of his topic.
As you could imagine, it was a bit crushing to Byers to hear his work so criticized. The compliments on his writing were encouraging, but he had felt that there was nothing more he could analyze from Hamlet that would add to his paper. Still, he knew that to make his final draft worthy of an A+, he should probably do what the teacher said and go back through the play again. As he did, he discovered the following:

• His teacher had been correct (of course)
• His analyzation had been severely lacking
• There was so much more to be criticized and analyzed in terms of his topic

As you can imagine, that came as quite a shock to Byers. He had always hated the ideas of writing a rough draft, fully believing that one could do well enough on the first to never merit revising said draft again. How stupid he had been. What he came to decide about his own academic writing was thus:

1. Never assume you've analyzed everything
2. Always revise drafts with the new information you've found
3. Revise the writing itself as well. Never assume your language is as perfect as it could be.

With these realizations, Byers came to more fully understand what he excelled at and what could be worked on some more. Far more qualities fell into the latter category than the former.

Writer's Block

If someone were to ask Sage Madsen about her writing, she'd probably try changing the subject. It makes her uncomfortable. When it comes to her writing, Sage would rather you left that subject well alone, thank you very much. 

If Sage were theoretically writing this, she would feel the starting feelings of that uncomfortableness that was mentioned earlier. But Sage isn't here right now; she's taking a break and so let's continue before she comes back. 

The Dreaded Paper

Nicole has always been pushed by competition. Whether it was against her sisters, friends, or even herself, she has always been driven to work harder than expected- than she ever thought she could. It was during her junior year of high school that her outlook on academic writing changed. It wasn’t just a competition but instead became something more. It was as if though something lit up inside of her when she was writing.

It all started with the DREADED TERM PAPER. Every junior in Mr. Powell’s AP English Language and Composition course was required to write fifteen pages full of literary analysis and criticism on one of the books that was reviewed during the course. Nicole was nervous but up for the challenge.

This paper was one of the most difficult things Nicole has ever done in her high school career. Wanting to challenge herself, Nicole chose to write her paper on The Grapes of Wrath a book that the class had not yet covered but Nicole had read a couple of years earlier.

Never before had Nicole stayed after school for hours to discuss a book and an assignment with her teacher. Nicole was the only one who had chosen to write the paper on The Grapes of Wrath and so these hours spent were necessary for a full understanding of the novel.

Steinbeck’s words opened up a whole new world for Nicole. The views portrayed and rhetorical devices used in the text made Nicole fall in love with literature and the powerful way it can change society. Looking up literary criticism was more difficult than expected. Using resources at the local college library, Nicole set out with many and many rough drafts incorporating the criticism in her analysis.

Each time she wrote, Nicole’s analysis and assimilation of criticism in the paper continued to improve. Her teacher was patient as she continued to bring in drafts and work with him after school. It was long, and Nicole put all of her effort into this assignment.

Finally the paper was due. All of the stress, hard work, and time had brought Nicole to this point. And two weeks later Nicole received not only the grade she had been hoping for but also gained the experience needed for success in future endeavors.

Looking back Nicole realized that some of her strengths while writing these types of academic papers included:

·         Determination

·         Ability to realize the resources she had and use them correctly

·         Not be afraid to ask for help

Her weaknesses included:

·         Difficulty with incorporating resources

·         Time management

Nicole looks forward to working on and improving her academic writing throughout the semester.

It's Been A While

Kayla is an extremely particular writer. Conditions must be perfect for her creative processes to begin. And, her high school Advanced Placement Literature class has instilled in her a false sense of security. Although she did manage to learn a lot in this class about literary dialogue and criticism, it was also 4 years ago. The English classes she has taken up until this point have been “back to the basics” and, because of this, Kayla managed to excel. Now, with higher expectations, higher reading levels, and more intense grading, she feels overwhelmed by the prospects of a literary criticism. Out of practice and suffering from intense perfectionism, it is sometimes difficult for Kayla to even write a sentence because the fear of using a less than perfect word or phrase is debilitating.

The Rookie

Justin hasn’t done as much writing in his day as he probably should have done.  He has never considered himself the creative type, so when it came to writing stories, he never had much success.  He has written his fair share of research papers and essays, but past that has not done much. 

The Past and the Future

                Throughout high school, Courtney was exposed to plenty of literary analysis. For example, during junior year she wrote an in-class essay every week; she looked at poetry, short stories, even articles. One would think this experience would make her an expert, but sadly, she still has a lot to learn.

Courtney has both strengths and weaknesses as an academic writer. Some of her strengths are

·         organization and structure of the paper

·         strong diction

Some of her weaknesses include

·         honing in on the most important aspects of the piece

·         lack of confidence in her creativity

Courtney knows how to tell a teacher what they expect to hear. She likes being right—as human beings do—so she learned early on how to repeat back any themes, genres, or figurative language that the teacher has explained in class, of course with solid diction and in logical paragraphs. She does this very well, in fact. But as she grew older, teachers began expecting her to “think on her own” and “express creative ideas.” However, she recognized that when a teacher says that “there is no wrong answer,” they really mean that “there is more than one right answer.” There are clearly incorrect analyses. And as a perfectionist, she is often afraid to meander off the well-used paths of past analyses and come up with something “new” or “creative” in case it is incorrect or even insignificant. She did learn how to express her own ideas with time and practice during her later high school years, though that seems insufficient for college-level formal analysis.

 Even for this assignment, Courtney feels inadequate. She hasn’t written literary analysis since last year, and even then it felt brief. She feels like she won’t be completely sure what skills she’s retained and lost until she begins the writing process. Will it be like riding a bicycle? Will she miss the mark completely? That option wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t affect her grades. But either way, this will be an important literary experience.

She's the Type to Cry When the Villain Dies

Veronica is a thoroughly emotional writer, in every sense of the term—she writes in a way that conveys not only her own emotions towards the text about which she is writing, but also what emotion it is that the text itself portrays. Emotion seems to be what speaks to her, particularly the portrayal of emotion in literature. One of her more recently written abstracts (written for an essay which she says that she does, at one point, hope to finish) was based fully on Jane Austen’s sense of the “androgynous mind” and “human” emotion versus “male” and “female” emotion. This sense of writing, however, while it can be rather insightful and humanizing, can also cause the writer to lack somewhat appallingly in other even basic areas.

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